I figured the Olympics themselves caused enough controversy that the last thing critics would spout off about was Canada’s unwillingness to continue to be a doormat to the rest of the athletic world.
One of the biggest issues taking hold at Vancouver and Whistler is the outrage over Canada’s Own the Podium program.
Apparently the Americans and the Brits especially have issues with us striving to be better.
It would seem to me that they have an issue with another legit challenger.
It has got so out of hand that several prominent columnists have gone to the point of blaming the unfortunate death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on the program itself.
They cite that his limited access to the track lead to his death. At risk of being deemed cold I have to ask would it really have made that much of a difference? It was a run that he died in. Would it have mattered if that training run took place three months before the games instead of the day they started?
It wasn’t long ago when we treated amateur athletes in this country with the same disdain that we do starving college students and then asked question about why they didn’t bring home gold.
I still remember the advocacy commercials where Canadian athletes were portrayed as the homeless and begging for funds on the streets.
I for one got sick and tired of interviews with Canadian athletes at the Olympics where they were “just happy to be there” after finishing 23rd.
But in the eyes of the Americans and British that was OK.
They were content to let Canada be that perky little sibling who made others feel good about themselves.
They enjoyed us being meek and mild and overly polite and then mocked us collectively because certain parts of the country say ‘aboot’ instead of about.
I’m tired of being a punching bag.
Critics have also jumped to the defence of the Slovakia women’s hockey team after Canada pummeled them 18-0 accusing the Canadians of running up the score — forgetting Slovakia showed no mercy to Bulgaria in Olympic qualifying beating them 82-0 — and not so much as blowing a whisper into the wind when the U.S. hammers Russia 13-0 or China 12-1.
Heading into the games we had plenty of reasons to expect those funding efforts — $118 million worth — to pay off.
Over this winter world cup season Canada finished second to only Germany in the overall medal count with 122 medals — 43 gold, 34 silver, 45 bronze. The Germans had 169 — 56 gold, 62 silver, 51 bronze. The United States was third with 111 — 43 gold, 34 silver, 34 gold.
And that’s just the individual sports, that does not include sports like hockey and curling.
Pundits are also mocking Canada’s so-called slow start to the games. As of Wednesday evening we were fourth in the standings with six medals while the U.S. lead with 14.
Some American columnists, like Jay Marioti scoffed at our medal hopes heading in and at the program itself, laughing that we thought we could win as many as 34 medals.
And true there have been a couple of disappointments so far like downhill skiing — although the very legitimate excuse of a program ravaged by injury has never been brought up — figure skating and speed skating. But where we are really supposed to shine is in the second half of the games in events like short track speed skating, hockey, skeleton, bobsleigh and curling. And there are still plenty of events left in alpine skiing and long track speed skating for us to recover.
The games are far from over. The least of other nation’s concerns should be how well Canada is doing and the programs that support our success, but I can see if it comes at their expense their moaning and groaning should almost be a compliment.
At the very least for once we should not be made to apologize for it.
And really it’s aboot time we kicked some butt.
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com